The Hummel Quest Tales: Sierra
by autophagy
Summary: What looks like a promising discovery at first turns into a nightmarish odyssey as General's team unearths something that should have better remained buried. [This story is part of my main story (The Hummel Quest) and contains spoilers if you haven't read Chapter 31 yet.]
1. The Mistake

His name was General. For a year now, he had been in charge of a team. They were a diverse lot, but all of them were brave and loyal soldiers. He had been fresh off the assembly line, born into a hostile world, when he had started picking up other straying tier ones. They had been just as intimidated and scared as him, but as their numbers had increased, they had grown stronger and soon some of them had been able to tier up. The majority of them were still at tier one, however. He himself could call himself a Cruiser III by now.

It was the 23rd of May as their journey lead them into yet another unknown area. Before their optics, the silhouette of a town had appeared behind the hills they were travelling through. He had ordered to camp outside at a good distance and sent their best scouts to search the town for any enemies. As the sun rose and they returned, they reported that they had seen a group of high tier tanks leave the otherwise empty town.

After deliberating the possible meaning of this, they eventually decided to go inside and see for themselves.

Empty and quiet, the town made General feel uneasy. There was something eerie about it. Upon entering it, the team had split up into tiny groups, searching different parts of the town for anything useful like fuel or depots of spare parts.

General and two others were taking care of the southern part of the town. They found some rather fresh traces of fuel and oil; sadly it was spilled on the ground.

"Looks like there was a fight" the T18 to General's left said, and the Leichttraktor to his right nodded thoughtfully. They followed the trail to what looked like a garage lot. Some of the garage doors were destroyed, others were open and empty. One of the doors was closed and the Leichttraktor drove over to it and opened it as well.

The sight that greeted them made all three of them gasp. Two wrecks were squeezed in there. It seemed like they had been moved after their destruction.

"Why did they do that?" the Leichttraktor asked, his voice low and anxious. General shrugged uneasily. He didn't recognize either of the wrecks, but he also had no desire to take a closer look.

"Close the door" he said and then contacted the hill group through his radio.  
"What's the situation up there?" he asked.

Up on the hill, a second T18 and a T1 – his name was Rain - had been just as unsuccessful in their search. There was nothing of use to be found there, so they had started making their way back down the other side.

"Nothing" the T18 answered the radio call. "We're on the way to y-Wait, I just heard something!"

They were approaching one of the road's bends when they had suddenly heard a faint noise. It sounded like a whimper, and as they drove closer, they heard it again. There was also something akin to...a weak stutter of an engine? Right before them, they now saw a hole in the building walls, where the noises seemed to come from.

What is it? General asked, but they didn't answer at first. Sharing a quick glance, they drove into the hole and saw what looked like the mangled wreck of a really flat tank. It twitched faintly and whined. As they listened closer, they could even make out words.

"...can't see...where is...hurts..." the voice sobbed.

What did you hear? General asked again, and this time they did respond.  
Rain was faster than the T18. "There's someone in there! He is hurt, please send someone quickly! We need help here!"

It took three of them to free the damaged tank from his tomb, despite one of them being a M31. The fact that the stranger's bent armor was outright wedged into the debris made it all the more difficult. Once they had finally gotten him out on the road, they could see the full extent of the damage he had taken from the impact. Only his general shape was somewhat recognizable. On top of that, it also looked like he had been shot at least once, and judging by how scorched his back armor was, it must have been something with great destructive force. He had stopped talking – if the weak muttering could be called that – and only wheezed now. It sounded frail. General was mystified by how this one was still alive.

"He must have been very lucky" the T18 that had found him mused.  
"Do you think he'll make it?" General asked their recovery tank, who gave him a worried frown in return.  
"Hard to tell. It depends on how badly his internal modules are damaged…the hull and the tracks should be fairly easy to repair but I don't know if I'll be able to get his cannon back to a working state. It looks pretty bad" the M31 said thoughtfully. "Maybe we can replace it with one of ours, but he would lose a lot of fire power that way."

General nodded. Maybe that could be avoided. He turned to his men. "Search the wrecks for any suitable working replacement!" They all nodded and quickly scattered to inspect the dead tanks they had found once again. Once they were gone, he looked at the M31 again.  
"Do you recognize this model?" he asked. The M31 shook his cannon.  
"I've never seen anything like it before. A tank destroyer for sure, but he must be really high tier."  
That was good news, kind of. If they could get him back to a fighting condition…General could only imagine the advantage it would give them.  
"Please do everything within your power. I think I don't have to explain how important it is that he survives."  
The recovery tank nodded. General looked at their discovery and gently tapped him with his cannon.  
"Hang on buddy. It's gonna be okay" he said in a comforting tone, not even sure if he would be heard. The answer he got was a small whine.

They actually were successful in finding a gun that would do. One of the wrecks inside the garages had been another tank destroyer, and they had unceremoniously taken off his cannon and taken it with them. Afterwards they had left the town. It was certain that some higher tier teams would set their sights on it soon, and General's team wouldn't stand a chance against them. But who knew, maybe that was about to change soon.

After a short travel, they had found a bunker and settled down there for now. It gave the M31 a chance to work on the tank destroyer without disturbance. The repairs took several days. During that time, they left their recovery tank alone, taking turns in guarding their makeshift camp. Finally, the door opened and the M31 came out. General approached him at once.  
"How did it go? Did he make it?" he asked, feeling more excited than he let on.  
The M31 nodded. "He's waking up right now. Do you want to talk to him?"  
"Of course" the Cruiser replied and – together with the rest of the team – they entered the room. Curious looks fell on the restored tank destroyer inside. He still looked pretty battered, with only little patches of his camo paint left and dents everywhere. But the improvement compared to how he had looked before was stellar. He had gone from a flat box of scrap metal to something that was actually recognizable as a tank destroyer, if a strange looking one.

The new cannon twitched and a groan could be heard. More and more tanks flocked into the room. General and the M31 shared a look, and the recovery tank rolled over to the tank destroyer to poke him.

Suddenly, his patient started screaming and everyone in the room flinched. The tank destroyer backed up and fell silent, his gaze darting through the assembled crowd.  
"W-who are you? Where's Tate?" he asked, his voice upset. Anyone he pointed his gun at flinched; many worried looks were thrown at the team's leader.

General realized that it was his time to step forward and address the stranger.  
"I don't know. We found you in a town not far away from here. My name is General" he said.  
The tank destroyer gave him a discontented glare.  
"I need to find Tate" he repeated, but then seemed to notice something about himself. He did what could only be described as the tank equivalent of looking cross-eyed. "That's not my cannon" he pointed out, sounding both confused and irritated.  
"We had to replace it" General explained, "You were badly damaged and it was the only way."

The tank destroyer gave him a cunning look, pausing a moment before he answered. "Ah, I see. And you're not expecting anything at all in return for saving my life, aren't you?" he asked furtively.  
The Cruiser III nodded slowly. This guy certainly had a quick wit. That was good…or maybe really bad.  
"Would you be willing to join our team and protect us?" General asked.  
"Hmmm ~" the tank destroyer hummed, tilting his cannon as he deliberated the question. "Why not" he finally said and started chuckling. No one joined in. Something about it sounded…not right. "Mind if I test my new gun first?" he then asked.

General started feeling genuinely unsettled now. "…on?" he said, unwittingly backing up. The tank destroyer's engine purred. All optics were on him and he took a moment to look around. "On you, of course" Siren grinned, and his chuckle cascaded into laughter as he started firing into the crowd randomly.


	2. Rebirth

It shouldn't have been this easy to forget the circumstances – who they were with, and what he had done. After the massacre, he had rounded up the survivors and much to their surprise, had apparently been sincere about joining their team…or what was left of it, anyway. They had left behind the wounded tanks and for the rest of the day, they had been marching into a direction Siren had chosen. The whole time, he had been loudly lamenting the fact that he had accidentally killed the M31.

The following days had been the most surreal ones the M2 – one of the survivors - had ever been through. And nothing like how she had thought they were going to be.  
When the E25 wasn't chasing them around for his own amusement or slaughtering animals like deer and cattle out of boredom, he was almost…normal. She had soon realized that he didn't see them as hostages or anything of the sort. They were his "friends", despite his warped interpretation of the word and what it entailed.

Rain hadn't spoken a single word ever since the incident and the M2…she had started trying to figure out ways to get on the E25's good side. It seemed to reduce his desire to act out his whims on her, and even though she felt guilty for trying to avoid it in this way while not doing anything to help Rain in the same way, she found herself hogging all the goodwill she could get out of their captor by acting like nothing was wrong at all. And she was surprisingly good at this. It was the only strategy that somewhat worked, too. At first she had tried running away, but the tank destroyer seemed to be a light sleeper. Either that or he slept hardly at all, because she hadn't made it far before he had noticed and started following her. Not chasing, just following at a leisurely pace until she had been unnerved enough to return on her own volition. She didn't even consider attacking him, since she was almost entirely sure that she wouldn't have been able to hurt him. Not to mention that she was way too afraid to even try.

Night was falling. They had run out of fuel, and Siren had taken it upon himself to completely eradicate a low tier team they had found in a forest on the way. Of course he hadn't granted them the dignity to just die. He had raced right into their base, crashing into the tank that had been unfortunate enough to be in his path. As the team had scattered into all directions in terror, he had given them a little headstart before hunting down every single one of them. Rain had been staring straight ahead motionlessly and the M2 had been humming to herself while trying to pretend she couldn't hear the screams. As Siren had returned, panting and in high spirits, he had been covered in oil and towing a crate with fuel.

The very same fuel was their dinner as they camped around a small fire near the base for the night. She was glad that she wouldn't have to sleep in the middle of all those corpses. It had been her suggestion to stay in this place instead, and she had even managed to completely hide her actual reasons. Instead she had talked about the better view on the night sky was here, and it had been to Siren's liking.

"I really like him" the tank destroyer said between two sips of fuel and waved his cannon at Rain. None of his team mates showed any sign of a reaction. Siren went on, seemingly undeterred. "No, I really do!" he continued his monologue, "He's such a good listener." He started laughing at his joke, and still there wasn't any feedback. Now he was frowning. "Both of you are, huh?"

The M2 affected a laugh. "We just don't want to interrupt you" she lied with feigned cheerfulness, but it didn't have the desired effect this time. The E25 fell silent and started glaring at her, his gun pointed directly at her. She didn't move, but on the inside she was cringing with fear. Instead of doing anything however, Siren's expression brightened up again. He raised his cannon slightly and chuckled. For once, that sound didn't seem the result of his insanity, though.  
"It's okay if you don't feel like talking" he said, "I don't like talking when I'm really sleepy either. You don't have to stay up just for me, you know?"  
The M2 was taken aback by how completely wrong he had interpreted her behavior. Had he forgotten that he had been the only one exerting himself? But on the other hand she was thankful that he had just unintentionally given her a good reason to excuse herself from the conversation.

She found herself a good spot to rest, and as she was trying to make herself fall asleep, she felt a sudden, slight twinge of guilt for basically lying to Siren. Appalled for even thinking this, she quickly shook her turret to chase away the thought. There was absolutely no sensible reason for her to feel guilty. She owed him nothing and it didn't matter if she told him all the lies in the world. Maybe she was just worried that he might find out somehow? Or was it just habit? Or maybe…maybe she was starting to turn crazy too.

The next day, Siren had expressed his displeasure with the fact that the M2 didn't have a nickname. He had urged her to come up with something, saying that he didn't like it when he couldn't call people by their name because it felt so impersonal. The light tank didn't want to disgruntle him, so she quickly chose the first thing that came to her mind; Sierra. The E25 was fond of it, and for the next couple of hours, he made sure to include her new name as much as possible when he was speaking to her.

Another thing that the M2 had noticed about Siren was that he apparently was outright unable to shut up about someone called 'Tate'. He also often mentioned a 'Fang', and he talked a lot about introducing them to his brothers and how sure he was that they would like his new friends. Sierra had found two things. Firstly, that he seemed to be completely obsessed with those two tanks, and secondly that the main purpose of their travel was to find them. The only problem with that was that obviously the tank destroyer didn't have the slightest idea how to achieve that goal, since the directions he led them in were completely random. He claimed to be following their tracks, but they frequently lost them and then started following different ones leading somewhere else. Sierra never pointed it out, but she didn't know if she wanted to spend the rest of her life like this and hoped that he would give up eventually. But then again she also didn't know what was going to happen if he did and therefore wasn't sure if she wanted that to happen either.

As the days passed by, the M2 started to feel more and more alienated from her friend Rain. She had hoped that they would be able to comfort each other and make it through this together, but the fact that he had turned mute and seemed to be just…not there anymore made it impossible. The Rain she knew was gone, replaced by an empty hull that simply followed them around and did what Siren told him to do. Or so it seemed. Sierra could have sworn that she had heard him quietly chuckle to himself sometimes, which made her wonder if he wasn't only gone, but also had been replaced by something else. The M2 wasn't left with much of a choice but talk to Siren instead whenever she felt like the silence and her once-friend's presence became overwhelming.

The conversations with the E25 tended to be surprisingly pleasant. He liked talking about battle tactics and techniques and sharing them with her, and most of the time Sierra managed to steer him away from the more gruesome ones. He turned out to be very knowledgeable. She found herself ask questions often, and he seemed to appreciate her desire to improve her skill.

Whenever she stopped to reflect about her actions and feelings, she got scared about how comfortable she had started feeling around him. She tuned out the times when he was acting like a complete lunatic; when he let his team mates participate in their raids, Sierra tried to focus on the fight and the advice and tips he had given her instead on the slaughter going on around her that he was causing. Humming to herself to drown out the noise had become somewhat of a habit to her by now. Rain was also becoming an effective fighter, displaying no emotion whatsoever as one enemy after another died under his fire.

After one of those fights, Sierra heard the E25 call out her name excitedly on the radio. She froze for a moment; then she responded with a hesitant "Yes?"  
'Come here!' Siren replied, urgency in his voice. This was unusual, and the M2 felt anxious as she drove towards his position. She found him quickly. He was standing next to a dead tank destroyer, a Marder II. To his other side, a shaking and wounded Bergepanther cowered and gave her horrified looks. Sierra hoped that this wasn't going to be what she feared it would. A thing that she noticed though was that the Marder seemed unusually unscathed…apart from being dead, that is. She knew how messy Siren always was, and this just seemed untypical.

"Look!" the E25 said, still full of excitement. "We can rebuild you now, and you can be a tank destroyer too!"  
Sierra stared at the wreck, suppressing shivers. This wasn't how she had envisioned her future. She was an American tank, and it would have never crossed her mind to change that. On top of that, she had never once felt the desire to be a tank destroyer. But she had the feeling that Siren wouldn't accept a 'no'. There was a shiver that she couldn't hold back, and her gaze jerkily turned to the E25.  
"That's great, I'm glad!" she said, faking joy perfectly.

Maybe it was the fact that he was badly injured, maybe it was nervousness. Or maybe he was just incredibly unskilled. When the Bergepanther was done with her, Sierra felt more sore than she had ever felt before. She was staring at her reflection in the lake, and while she looked mostly fine on the outside, her insides were aching, mismatched and ill-fitting parts grinding against each other. She whined as she turned away and faced Siren's scrutinizing glare.  
"It hurts…" she whimpered and the E25 spun around to yell at the recovery tank that was standing next to them and fidgeting.

"_You botched it!_" he screeched and the Bergepanther shirked from him, stammering about how sorry he was. The tank destroyer's cannon was twitching, and Sierra knew that he was going to kill the other tank if she didn't do anything now. Or at least she had to try.  
"I-It's fine!" she said, "I probably just need some time to get used to it!"  
But Siren wasn't even listening to her. She watched in terror as he shot the Bergepanther, and then shot him a couple more times even though he was dead already.

The E25 stared at the wreck for a moment longer and then turned back to her, apparently satisfied with his work.  
"I'll find another one for Rain" he said.

The whole night after that, Sierra couldn't sleep. She was shifting and turning in hopes of finding a somewhat comfortable position, but it wasn't only the soreness that kept her awake. She couldn't stop wondering if the Bergepanther would still be alive if she hadn't admitted that she was in pain. When the sun was almost rising again, she finally passed out from exhaustion; Siren was haunting the nightmare she had.


	3. Siren's Call

The E25 kept his word. Only two weeks later, he had managed to track down another TRV. There was one problem about this one though; as they sat in the midst of a row of bushes and overlooked the marshlands before them, they had to find that he had team mates that were of a higher caliber than the ones they usually faced. It was very early in the morning, so most of the team was still resting or waking up. The cool air stung in their vents; the early morning sun was only a diffuse shape in the greyish horizon yet. Thick wafts of mist obscured a good portion of their base, so the tank destroyers could only guess how big the team was and what vehicles they would be facing. Siren gave a small nod and they retreated back behind the hill crest.

"Hmm…this won't be easy" he said with a frown. "They have tier fours at least, unless they're a bunch of complete pancakes they can take me down."  
Sierra gave him a quizzical look. "Pancakes? What are pancakes?" she asked with utter confusion. Siren returned her look with a shrug. "I don't know? Never seen one…Some kind of deer, I think" he mused. It was often remarkably easy to throw him off track. He must have noticed and shook his cannon crossly. "They're just called that, okay? It means they're idiots, do I really have to spell that out for you?"  
"I'm sorry" she said in a subdued voice. Siren rolled his cannon and gave her an exasperated growl. "You should take Rain as an example and not interrupt me when I'm talking tactics" the E25 hissed. Sierra looked down awkwardly and fell silent.  
"I need to think about this" Siren added thoughtfully. "Let's go somewhere they won't spot us."

With that said, he turned away and started driving off, the two other tanks following him silently.

They had ended up resting on a patch of meadow that was surrounded by thicket on all sides. A couple of hours had passed when Siren's cannon perked up all of a sudden. "I have an idea!" he shouted, and both of his team mates flinched at the sudden loud noise. They turned to him and the E25 wiggled on his treads in excitement. "We're not gonna fight them, we'll just make friends with them!" His voice turned ominous as he looked at the two other tanks. "And I have an idea how we'll make them our friends."  
Sierra felt uneasiness well up inside her armor. She would have been an idiot to believe that someone like Siren would go about this in benevolent ways. The E25 went on cheerfully.  
"We'll tell them that one of us got hurt and then they'll have to help us, right? We can hang out with them for a bit and then we'll kill one of them. We'll just make it look like an accident and have them upgrade you with his parts, Rain." Siren looked utterly content with his plan, giving off an air of deviousness.

Rain tilted his cannon inquiringly, and Sierra spoke out his silent question aloud.  
"But we are not hurt?" she said tentatively, and a second later she wished she hadn't. Siren pointed his cannon at Rain and shot him. It happened so fast that the T1 only let out a scream when the fuel already started pouring out through the brand new hole in his side. Both of the low tiers stared at the gaping wound in terror. He had shot Rain's engine; it stalled with a gurgling noise.  
Sierra stared fearfully at the other tank destroyer and backed up, feeling all too reminded of the massacre when Siren had first woken up.

The E25 started laughing hysterically. "You should see yourself!" he jeered and bounded forward to bump into her. Sierra froze, feeling paralyzed. She felt unable to form even one coherent thought, only seeing her team mates dying over and over again in her mind. Her reaction only served to amuse the other tank destroyer further and he cackled on.  
"What's wrong? All I did was shoot him and you're looking like I'm about to kill you ~! Someone had to be injured, or were you going to fake it? Think that'd have worked? You gotta make it look realistic, you know…"

She didn't know whether to nod or to shake her cannon and just stared like a deer caught in the headlights. Siren purred and they ended up staring at each other for several seconds before the choking noises to their left made the E25 turn his gaze to Rain, whose cannon was raised as he trembled from the pain. The T1's vents rattled. Siren sighed and rolled over to the light tank. The earth under his treads scrunched wetly. He slowly drove back and forth through the forming puddle, obviously enjoying what he was doing; his gaze was fixed on Rain.

"You…you could have just shot his tracks…or something" Sierra wheezed, although she felt that using the word 'just' was wrong here. The E25 stopped for a moment to look at her. It seemed like he was biting back a chuckle.  
"But look ~" he said and traced the bullet wound, making a small circle and smearing fuel around it in the process. Rain gave a hurt whine and Siren went on. "Doesn't it look funny? Look how it gushes out and look how he squirms. Do you think he's ever been in that much pain before?"

The Marder couldn't tear her gaze away from the twisted spectacle. Rain was looking at her and for the first time in a long time he reminded her of the T1 she had once known. She felt sick. As her thoughts raced frantically she finally remembered what all this was for in the first place.  
"We should go now" she said tonelessly, struggling to get the words out at all. It seemed like a miracle to her that Siren actually nodded and stopped playing with the other tank's fuel.

"You go first and do the talking, I'll push him" he said in a suddenly stern voice. Sierra nodded quickly.  
"What should I tell them?"  
Siren snorted. "Well, we got attacked, _obviously_" he sneered.

Sierra crossed the hill and it only took a moment until she got noticed. A Hetzer and a M8 approached her; apparently they had been on guard. Naturally, a lonely Marder was something that caught a team's attention and Siren obviously wasn't in a hurry to show up as well. Nervously, she halted and waited for the two guards to reach her.

"What are you doing here?" the M8 asked with the typical harshness that was to be expected when one was talking to a suspicious stranger.  
"I need your help. Please." she said, her voice sounding firm although she had a churning feeling in her fuel tank. A wrong move and those tank destroyers probably wouldn't hesitate to kill her.  
"With what?" the Hetzer said warily. It was that moment when she realized that this could be her chance to tell them that she had been kidnapped. If they believed her and decided to help her…if all of them attacked Siren, they would be able to kill him and it would be over. All she had to do was telling them now. But no matter how much she wanted to say the words, nothing would come out. She was still quiet when she heard the sound of her team mates' engines approaching. The Hetzer aimed his gun at her at once and the M8's gaze scanned the hill ridge tensely.

Sierra finally managed to talk again.  
"One of my team mates is hurt. He will die if you don't help us" she said and didn't even have to fake the distress in her voice. Now Rain appeared behind her, followed by Siren who drove out from behind him as they reached the strangers. Judging by the way the E25 looked at the Hetzer once he saw him, Sierra knew that he had already decided on a victim for his plan. But the other tank destroyers most likely didn't recognize his hungry gaze like Sierra did. They continued their interrogation.  
"What kind of tank are you?" the Hetzer asked Siren, even more distrustfully than before at the sight of a tank model he had never seen before. Sierra tensed up. If they found out that a high tier travelled with them, that would inspire very uncomfortable questions she had no answer to. But Siren was apparently more prepared than she was.  
"Don't you recognize your own kind?" the E25 replied smoothly, "I'm a Hetzer like you!"  
That didn't seem to convince the other tank destroyers at all.  
"You look strange for a Hetzer" the M8 threw in. Siren didn't even have to think about his answer for a second, or so it seemed.  
"You should have seen me before they put me back together" he said with a canny grin. That apparently was charming enough to make the strangers drop some of their wariness. The M8 even chuckled, but then they seemed to remember that there was a T1 right there and bleeding fuel and oil everywhere and they got serious again. The only thing that kept Sierra from screaming out in the face of the absurdity of the whole situation was the mildly comforting thought that Rain had fallen unconscious in the meantime and didn't have to witness this.

"So where's the rest of your team?" the M8 eventually asked. Before Siren could reply, Sierra answered. It was more of a reflex than anything.  
"They died" she said. When she had started talking, Siren had shot her an absolutely nasty glare, but since she hadn't spilled anything that would potentially compromise their plan, he turned away again.

The other two tank destroyers had probably subconsciously formed their own, plausible idea of what had happened to this weird trio and after a moment of consideration, the Hetzer eventually nodded.  
"I suppose we can help you" he said slowly, "Come with us."


	4. Farce

_[Seems like I forgot to post this for some reason...Oh well, here you go! Some filler until I stop procrastinating on the main story.]_

The 'making friends' part of the plan wasn't going so well for Sierra so far. Even if she hadn't felt intimidated by the team full of higher tier strangers, she still wouldn't have been able bring herself to approach them in any way. She knew something they didn't – that one of them was going to die soon. That is, if Siren was going to be satisfied with only killing one. She had a feeling that he wouldn't be and figure out a way to cause a slaughter eventually. And yet she remained silent, causing her to cringe with guilt whenever she had to look at them.

There was also another reason. She didn't want to get attached to them in any way. She could deal with killing enemies, but she didn't want to witness someone she cared about die or get injured again, if in any way possible. The only way not to get attached to them was not to get to know them in the first place.

Siren on the other hand…he had no such inhibitions. He would go and start casual conversations and make friends, probably with the intention of finding out about opportunities for him to strike. At least, so he tried. A lot of them instinctually avoided the E25. They must have been sensing that something was not quite right about him, despite the fact that he hadn't gone on a rampage yet. The Marder could sense it too. He had this very special presence. It was hard to pinpoint when just exchanging a few words with Siren, but there was something about his posture, about the way he talked, the topics he chose…this creeping sense of something being off.

He apparently was doing his best to behave, if only not to blow his cover. She could tell however how hard it was for him to control himself around anything that he could possibly torture and kill if he wanted to. Ever so often, his cannon would twitch, or he would stumble over his words – giving away that he was distracted, most likely with his cruel mental images.

Ironically, Sierra couldn't help but feel more alienated from this "nice" Siren than from the volatile Siren she knew - the one who just acted out each and every one of his whims. It was just a fake façade that he put up and that she barely recognized.

But it made her realize something that she felt was important. At first, anyway. If he could play nice for a while when he needed to, it meant that he definitely must have been aware of the unacceptable and abnormal nature of his urges and yet made the conscious decision to act on them. In the end however, the more she tried to continue the thought, the more it dawned on her that this epiphany was of no practical value whatsoever. Even if he acted the way he did _despite_ knowing that it was despicable, there still was no guarantee that it meant that the things he did were wrong in his very own opinion. Judging by how much he was enjoying them, it was in fact the most likely possibility. He just had learned to sometimes restrain himself to avoid inconvenient backlash, just like someone else would have learned that being impolite at the wrong times could cause people to be disgruntled with them.

With a sigh, Sierra kicked her engine into gear to leave her secluded resting place and check up on Rain. This team's TRV was a timid and gentle one who didn't talk much. She couldn't really identify what model he was, but it seemed to be something Russian. He was doing everything he could to help Rain, but the T1 was still in a bad shape nevertheless. Since they didn't have a spare engine that was suitable for him, all they had been able to do was to stop the fuel and oil from leaking (at least temporarily) and hook him up to battery cables for now. The internal components of his engine were still damaged beyond repair. She could tell that he was suffering even though he naturally didn't talk and it made her angry to think that other than her, Siren didn't seem to care at all that he had almost caused the light tank to die. He hadn't checked up on Rain once.

"Do you need fuel?" she asked the T1. Luckily the team had agreed to provide them with fuel in exchange for Siren promising to help them with their next raid.  
Rain didn't even look at her and then slowly shook his turret.  
Sierra dropped her gaze for a moment. Once again she got aware of how little this tank resembled who he used to be.  
"Is there anything else I could do for you?"  
No answer, as she expected. She sighed in defeat. Being around Rain right now was even more saddening than usual.  
"Do you want me to leave?"  
He still hadn't turned to look at her - or moved at all - and she had to assume that his lack of even a nonverbal answer was an answer on its own.

With her gun barrel drooping she slowly drove away. It was the evening of the second day they were here, and the longer this dragged on, the more unbearable it got. She was already mentally preparing herself for another night of bad sleep, and was not surprised but still discouraged by the fact that Siren was waiting for her at her previous resting place as she returned. She avoided looking at him, hoping that he would just leave her alone as she wasn't in the mood for his antics, but as always she was out of luck.

She felt him slightly tap her side with his cannon.  
"Hey" he whispered, and she turned to look at him out of courtesy.  
"It's almost time" he continued. Sierra nodded listlessly. The E25 went on undeterred.  
"They're going on a raid tomorrow." With an ugly grin, he added, "The Hetzer's gonna have an accident. You don't have to do anything, just fight like normal. I'll take care of the rest."  
She nodded again and he turned away, looking smug and contented. As he wasn't looking, she gave him a spiteful glare before trying to fall asleep herself.

The Marder hadn't been keen on waking up the next day, and again she averted her gaze every time someone from the team looked at her. Especially the Hetzer. The desire to tell them was so strong, but she didn't know if they would even believe her. She _did_ know however that Siren was going to kill her if she tried. She despised herself for being so selfish and putting her own life above the others but couldn't help it.

They attended the tactical briefing of the team. It was still early in the morning and most of them looked a little sleepy; every now and then someone yawned through their vents. As according to the plan, Sierra was going to simply support the attack, while Siren offered to stay in the back and snipe or catch everyone who was trying to get away. Sierra asked herself if he was going to keep behaving or let himself go during the battle. However, if he wasn't going to end up ripping someone's tracks off and completely – she stopped her train of thought at that point, chasing away the memory. Even if he wasn't going to enjoy himself fully, only a little too much maybe, she was afraid that the team wouldn't see that as a warning sign. It was a rather common sight when someone went a little wild during a fight, and since Siren had been oh so nice, they were most likely just going to shrug it off. In the end it was decided that Siren should rather support the flank; which made sense in the context of the team not knowing that he would have probably been able to completely take apart the enemy team on his own if they weren't able to reach him.

As soon as everyone knew what they had to do, the team headed out, with one of them staying behind to guard their base. Siren made a little cheerful remark to the Marder how glad he was that the Hetzer wasn't the one guarding, since that would have needlessly complicated his plan.

Prior to planning the attack, they had sent scouts to their chosen enemies' base, making sure that they would at least theoretically be able to handle the other team's guns. The drive wasn't a really long one, and after forty minutes they split up for a flanking attack. Siren went with the flankers, which was why Sierra made sure to stay with the main group. As far away from the E25 as possible so she wouldn't have to witness the murder, however he was going to do it.

The terrain was swampy here as well, and they had warned Sierra about the spots where the ground could swallow her beforehand. Some lone trees and a few rows of bushes as well as a couple of bold hills and stone formations granted some cover, but the Marder still felt on edge as she crept closer to the base. The vigilant gaze of an enemy Crusader only barely missed her and she froze for a moment, only daring to peek out again as the light continued his patrol. A couple of hundred meters to her left she caught a glimpse of one of her allies closing in slowly as well. He noticed her look and silently gave her a sign. That meant that he could see a good portion of the other team, which was their cue to attack.

The Crusader was now showing Sierra his back side after driving past. She shot him; the shell went through his armor and hit the engine. Before he could do anything about it, two other shots from different directions finished him off. More shots could be heard in the distance and Sierra moved on forward cautiously as the rush began to her left. She flinched as the very first of their tanks took a nasty hit. But that was to be expected. From her position she could barely see anything. As quickly as her engine allowed it, she made her way up one of the hills and scanned the field before her for any enemy tank that could possibly see her from here. It looked like the team had been resting in different parts of the base. The rush had made them scatter even more, and it didn't look like they would be given the chance to regroup, seeing as her team was driving them apart even further. She focused on the exposed side of a T-34, but before she had the chance to fire, he already took a hit from someone else and exploded into a ball of fire. The nearby tanks ducked from a rain of flying armor shreds. Sierra had recognized the sound of that particular cannon that had killed him at once. She wasn't able to determine where the shot came from exactly, not even as another one severely crippled a heavy tank who had been busy with trying to shake off a light. His struggle ended quickly as he now got swarmed and died under a hail of shells.

The third shot hit a D.W.2…but that was one of their guys. Sierra couldn't make herself believe that this was an accident, as he had been far away enough from any enemy for being the victim of a poorly aimed shot. But Siren had said that he would only kill the Hetzer. She felt the control of her mind slip again as she watched the fight and suddenly could only see her own old team mates anymore. One of them fell. The D.W.2 was shot again and at this point had caught the attention of an enemy tank who took him out swiftly.

The Marder's vents ran heavily and choppy as she could only look on and wasn't able to focus enough to fire at anyone even though she had a wide range of targets to choose from. Only when a shell flew past her gun shield and only missed by a few centimeters, she managed to shake off the haunting images. She took another quick look at the scene to make herself aware of her surroundings again. Her allies seemed to be able to handle the situation quite well despite their artificially decreased numbers. Sierra backed up quickly to avoid attracting another shot. What she had seen wasn't all of the enemy team. The rest of them had to be somewhere else. Inching forward again she risked another peek onto the battlefield and did a quick head count. Four tanks were missing. Taking a graze shot she hurried back behind the hill crest and was about to report her findings as suddenly the ground in front of her exploded. Stones and chunks of earth pelted her front, a wave of singeing heat hitting her like a derailed train and punching the air right out of her vents.

The flash of light blinded her for a moment and for several seconds all she could hear was a numbing ringing noise as she rolled backwards jerkily in a daze. Slowly it dawned on her that she had just barely evaded an artillery shell. That left three unknown enemies. They certainly hadn't warned her about an SPG. Disoriented, she spun around and croaked something into her radio that she herself couldn't hear and hoped it made sense – an attempt to direct her allies' attention to the missing tanks. She tried to carry out her previous intention of looking for them as well, but ended up limping into a rock and staying right there to lean on it as she tried to catch her breath.

Siren skidded around a sharp bend, making his way through the labyrinth of natural alley ways the rock formations had created. He had had his fun, and now it was time to get to work. The two TDs that had initially received them had flanked with him. They had figured out on their own that a part of the enemy team had gone missing – they were probably trying a flanking attack on their own in hopes of turning the tide of the battle. That was just perfect for the E25. His little squad had split up and all three of them were looking for the stray tanks. Only a little while later the Hetzer reported that he had spotted three tanks and opened suppressing fire.  
"Drive them to me, I'll take care of it" Siren responded, and no one noticed the sinister undertone to his voice. He reached a small valley and set up on one end of it to surprise the enemies where they wouldn't have an escape route. Suddenly, he picked up the Marder's message. It was barely coherent, which was something he wasn't used to from Sierra, who would always carefully pick her words, thinking he didn't notice that they were seldom sincere. Something must have hit her hard.

The Hetzer was going to be right where Siren wanted him, and that was insanely important to him at the moment, but he was ready to turn around and temporarily postpone his plans to go and save that girl's skid plate if she was in a potentially lethal situation. There would be a couple of other chances to get his kill, but the Marder surely wouldn't come back to life. Her voice had sounded really beaten up. She couldn't be dying on him, could she? That would mean he would be alone again…Cringing, he tuned in to their private frequency and called her.  
"Sierra? Where the hell are you? Are you alright?"

Of all people to react to her call, she hadn't thought that it would be _him_. His voice was stern and demanding, expecting an answer in the next split second. She shook her cannon, and the dizziness was finally slowly subsiding. Her front armor was hurt and dented, but she hadn't taken any serious damage and was going to be fine if she got some rest.  
"I'm…I'm okay" she answered in a faint tone. The reply came immediately.  
«Go find cover and stay there. I'll come to you once I'm done here.»

Sierra didn't know how to feel about this. Was that concern he was expressing? She hadn't been aware that the E25 was even capable of such an emotion. Nevertheless, she did as she was told as quickly as possible and hoped that the battle would be over soon. From what she picked up on the intercom, it should be.

For a flanking group those three tanks were ridiculously slow. Siren would have laughed, but his playful mood had faded. He waited until two of the oblivious tanks were lined up in his sight and shot right through the light tank in front – the shell then buried itself in the BDR heavy tank's turret behind him. They didn't even know what was happening to them, and Siren shot a couple of times more to bring them down individually. He could make out the silhouette of the Hetzer now. The other TD was chasing another light tank and took him down before Siren could, unaware that he was the next one to die.

It was a quick and necessarily merciful death. It was in Siren's interest to not turn the Hetzer's hull into an unrecognizable wreck, since they would need the parts, and even if that hadn't been the case, the E25 wouldn't have felt like it. A few moments later the M8 turned up behind Siren, just a little bit too late to have witnessed the actual cause of the Hetzer's death. Siren just nonchalantly told him that his team mate had fallen and that he hadn't been able to save him in time. The M8 seemed to buy it immediately. Nothing all too unusual about the story, after all. He went about affixing towing ropes to the dead German TD so they could take him back to their base.

Siren had no intention of waiting for him however and already drove off to go and find Sierra. He was still on his way when their allies announced their victory over the radio. Paying little attention to that, he called the Marder instead and had her confirm that she was still alive. She couldn't tell him how severe her damage was, but as he arrived at her position, a scrutinizing glance told him that it was nothing that she wasn't going to survive. Looking at her injuries, he quickly connected the dots.  
"Arty got you, huh?" he asked and Sierra nodded faintly.  
"I'll be fine" she said. There was a sudden worry that he could just go and discard her if she turned into a burden. "I…just need a little time."  
"Can you drive?" Sierra nodded again. There was more chatter on the radio. They were talking about prisoners, so the two TDs decided to go and see what the fuss was about.

Surrounded by their allies, there was a cowering Bison, obviously the last survivor of her team. A bit less dizzy than before now, Sierra looked at her curiously. Either they would kill her, leave her here, or they would have her join their team to make up for the tanks they lost. But not every team had use for an SPG. They were still deliberating about it as the rest of their tanks arrived at the scene as well.

Despite being hit by the very same Bison earlier, Sierra held no ill feelings against the SPG. They both had been doing what they had to do, even if it meant that one of them died. Such was the nature of a battle. She therefore hoped that she would be granted the opportunity to change this team, even though the Marder knew very well that adjusting to new team mates wasn't an easy process. Siren wasn't helping the matter at all. He had gotten in a much better mood again once he had found her mostly unharmed, and now he was cheerfully heckling, demanding that they killed the SPG.

Sierra took it as a sign of his mask of sanity crumbling little by little. Apparently he wasn't as good at controlling himself as she had assumed. The irony was that there were other voices suggesting the Bison's demise as well. They didn't sound half as oilthirsty as the E25 though. Sierra turned away. She knew that this was a custom, but that didn't mean that she wanted to have any part in it.


	5. Bad Blood

The way back was tedious for Sierra. Even though the sun wasn't visible behind what looked like thick rain clouds, it was unbearably hot. It felt like the path was stretching endlessly, and the fact that she didn't recognize anything about the unfamiliar terrain and therefore was unable to estimate how much longer they would have to drive only made her feel worse.

She noticed that Siren was looking at her and probably had been for a while. It contributed greatly to the constricted feeling she was suffering from ever since her run-in with the artillery shell. Before she could bring herself to ask about the reason for his staring, he spoke.  
"Your engine sounds louder than usual" he pointed out. Sierra hadn't been aware of that, but now as she listened closely, she noticed it too. It occurred to her that maybe that was the reason why no one else seemed to be bothered by the heat…it was probably just her engine overheating for whatever reason.

Anxiously, she looked at the E25. He seemed to be frowning and eventually mumbled that they'd need to have the team's TRV check up on her once they'd arrive at the base.

Back at the camp, she did as she had been told and immediately joined the other wounded tanks in seeing the TRV. As she waited in line, she felt pretty bad for him, since that was a lot of work at once, but he seemed to be used to it and handled it swiftly and without any complaints. She figured that he would go about working on Rain once he was done with this. If only she could have had this one do her upgrade…at least he would be the one doing it for Rain and that gave her a little bit of comfort. The T1 was having it bad enough already, she didn't wish for him to go through the same pain she had gone through.

The Marder hadn't seen Siren after he had driven off when they had arrived, but she assumed that he was currently convincing the team that it was absolutely necessary for them to let him have the Hetzer's parts for Rain. She had a feeling that he was either going to be successful or freak out and go on a spontaneous killing spree if he didn't get his way.

When it was finally her turn to get patched up after several hours, Sierra made sure to mention right away what had happened to her. She had watched some of the tanks in front of her hem and haw and trying to downplay and deny the severity of their wounds; something she simply couldn't understand. Maybe it was pride. But when their health was concerned, it was the wrong time to be proud in her opinion.

The TRV seemed to share the sentiment and got to work at once, dutifully checking for a physical cause of the symptoms she was experiencing. It felt weird to have someone poke around in her insides, but she guessed that no one thought of it as being particularly pleasant.  
"I see" the TRV mumbled and backed up. Sierra snapped out of her thoughts and gave him a curious glance.  
"It's nothing serious. You only got some soil in your vents, if you wash it out you should be fine."  
Sierra sighed in relief. Siren was going to be happy to hear this.  
"Thank you" she said quickly with a couple of grateful bows of her cannon and was about to leave when the TRV held her back. She flinched at the touch and stared at him.  
"There is something else" he said, his voice even quieter than before as if he was scared of someone listening.  
"Your modules…they are all very…"  
He seemed to be searching for the right word for a moment.  
"…very thrown together. There is a lot of bad connections. Your armor looks like it will fall apart if you bump into something."  
Sierra looked to the ground. So it was that bad, huh?  
"Is there anything you can do?" she asked him, hoping it wasn't too presumptuous. This team was doing a lot for them already…more than they knew about. The TRV fell silent for a moment, probably trying to estimate how much work it would be.  
"I guess" he said eventually, "but a complete upgrade would be better and most likely less work than trying to fix this mess. But in any case you would have to talk to my team mates because I can't decide who gets which resources."

Sierra nodded. That meant her chances were probably slim. She was pretty sure that giving parts for Rain's upgrade was the most they could ask for. She thanked the TRV again and asked where she could wash herself. He directed her to a shallow pond that was basically only around the corner. Which was convenient for the Marder for two reasons – she didn't have to strain her engine even more with another long drive and she also wouldn't be in danger of getting lost.

The water was fantastically cool, a welcome relief from the heat. After being hesitant at first, she proceeded to drive into the pond as far as she could without having to worry about her engine stalling. A group of trees provided some privacy, and she enjoyed the opportunity to be away from the other tanks for a bit. It was weird how she felt a constant loneliness when traveling with Rain and Siren, and now on the other hand already felt overwhelmed by having a whole team around her at all times.

She made sure to move around to get the dirt out of her vents. It seemed to be working quite well and she watched some blades and leaves of grass surfacing, thinking about how lucky she was that it was only dirt and not shrapnel that had gotten stuck in her system. Suddenly, she noticed the reflection of another tank and her gaze darted up to the embankment.

The tank destroyer that was standing there was the very same M8A1 that had received her when she had arrived. Too flustered to say anything, Sierra just stared and backed up slightly.  
"Hey, seems like we had the same idea" the stranger grinned, and – upon receiving an even more confused look from her – added, "I thought I'd go and relax a little after that battle." She still didn't answer. The other tank destroyer tilted his cannon.  
"Mind if I join you?"  
Sierra was pretty sure that she did in fact mind a lot but ended up shaking her cannon in the end out of fear of coming across as rude. The M8 smiled at her and drove into the water as well, while Sierra watched him. She had retreated to the embankment, but the pond only had a diameter of a couple of tank lengths and it made her uncomfortable in ways she couldn't quite fathom. But not nearly as uncomfortable as it got when instead of - as she had hoped - keeping to himself, he approached her and ended up sitting next to her. She awkwardly stared right ahead and tried to ignore him, but from her peripheral vision noticed that he had turned his turret towards her.

_'He probably wants to talk to me'_, she thought, _'I should be polite and say something.'_ But she couldn't think of anything at all. Her mind was completely blank. Finally, he spoke up first.  
"How do you like it here?" he asked, and by some kind of miracle or mystical powers, his voice didn't sound nearly as intrusive as his behavior was. Still avoiding to look at him, Sierra mumbled a quick answer with a nervous smile.  
"Your team is very generous. Thank you for letting us stay."  
The other tank destroyer chuckled.  
"No problem. You were a big help in the battle."

Sierra didn't answer to that, looking away awkwardly. She knew that it had probably only been a matter of time until someone eventually approached her, but there had still been the faint hope that they would leave this team before that happened.

"What's your name?" the other tank destroyer suddenly asked. The Marder twitched and hesitated before saying something. For a moment she felt like she had forgotten her own name, and felt incredibly stupid for that.  
"Sierra" she eventually replied, wondering what that guy was thinking about her tense answers. Or if he noticed at all.  
"Nice to meet you, Sierra. If you need anything or if you just want to talk, you can always come to me. I'm on guard duty a lot but in the evenings I'm usually free."  
She concluded that he most likely hadn't noticed. Giving an uneasy shrug, she tried her best to make it look like she appreciated the offer.  
"That's…that's very nice of you. But we're going to leave soon."

The M8 was still looking at her intently.  
"Oh? I heard that you're going to stay for a while longer. In exchange for us upgrading the T1."  
Sierra froze and finally returned the other's gaze. He quickly figured out what her reaction meant.  
"You didn't know? Didn't your friend tell you that he agreed to it?"  
The Marder shook her cannon jerkily.  
"I'm sorry, I have to…I need to go" she stammered and got out of the water in a rush.

With an amused snort, the M8 turned his turret to look after her but didn't say anything as she drove off hastily.

The sun still hadn't come out, and the air felt outright chilly now. Sierra paid little attention to it as she hurried back to the camp and tried to find Siren. She drove past the Bison they had decided to keep. The SPG was talking to someone and didn't notice the Marder rushing past. At least they had let her live. Siren had been pouting about it. Sierra was starting to suspect that he had a distinct weakness when it came to artillery, which in his case meant a special preference for killing them. She didn't know if there was any particular reason for that or if it was just a common thing, since apparently a lot of other people seemed to share the sentiment. Maybe because they were easy prey from up close and a great nuisance from a distance. She heard more negative things about them than positive ones. And admittedly, she could see why someone would have a dislike for an enemy they couldn't see or fight back against.

She eventually found the E25 outside the base. It looked like he was just hanging around, enjoying the bad weather while placidly sipping some fuel. Sometimes, Sierra almost envied his apparent ability to not have a care in the world. As he noticed her approaching, he looked up and seemed mystified by the appearance of the soaked Marder.  
"What happened to you?" he asked, his cannon drifting to the side slightly in the tank equivalent of raising one's eyebrow. Instead of answering the question or beating around the bush, Sierra got straight to the point.

"You agreed to stay here longer?"

The other tank destroyer gave a noncommittal shrug.  
"Yeah, so what?" he asked and turned back to his fuel.  
His words resounded in Sierra's mind for a while. She was fully aware that there was little she could do about this. Siren was making the rules. Not Rain, not she. After carefully considering her boundaries for a moment, she decided to at least try.  
"They might get susp-"  
He cut her off harshly.  
"How stupid are you? I lied to them. Like hell I'm staying with these kids. As soon as they finish the upgrade, we're out of here" he barked.  
Sierra flinched and cowered as if he had just shot her. She gave a subdued nod. The E25 waved his cannon at her.  
"Go play or something. You're being annoying."

The Marder turned around and looked back at the camp where the other tanks were moving about. She didn't want to go there. They would try to talk to her again if she was just loafing around alone. Cringing, she looked at Siren again.  
"….can I stay?" she asked in a feeble voice.  
The glance that Siren gave her seemed almost baffled. He looked like he hadn't expected to hear something like that from her ever, and especially not after he had just been so rough to her. Usually she stayed away from him as much as possible, in very obvious ways.  
Sierra fidgeted about. Seeing him this speechless was a seldom sight. He was probably waiting for an explanation of some kind, but it was really easy; she had come to a point where he seemed like the lesser of two evils.  
"Please?"  
After a couple of excruciatingly long seconds, he eventually shrugged.  
"Fine with me" he said.

There wasn't really anything for them to do. The hours passed by, and Sierra watched the sky, feeling like a storm was approaching. This base didn't offer a lot of places to seek shelter, except for a dugout that no one seemed to be using – but she was sure that it would get crowded quickly if a thunderstorm was to surprise them – and a small shed that the TRV used as a storage space.  
Siren had just been dwelling on his own thoughts as well, it seemed. But soon she noticed that his serenity was fading. When traveling on their own, they never stayed in one place for longer than a night. She could imagine that it must have been torture for the E25 to not be able to exert himself. A stationary base just wasn't the right place for him to be; only moments after she had seen him get antsy he started pacing around.

The Marder watched him pensively, but didn't comment. She didn't want to give him any ideas by reminding him of her existence. Too bad that he seemed to be aware of it nevertheless. He suddenly spun around and glared at her.  
"I need to kill something" he hissed and threw a quick glance towards the dark horizon. "My gun's itching."  
Sierra was slightly puzzled at first why he would feel that urge again already, when they had only been in a fight earlier that day. Usually he was satisfied for at least a couple of days after causing a bloodbath. But then again, she realized, there _hadn't been_ a bloodbath this time. If anything, that little _taste_ of a fight had probably only stoked him up.  
She wasn't quite sure if he was expecting an answer from her at all, because he resumed his pacing right afterwards, huffing with frustration.

Sierra could almost _feel_ his tension, and it started to affect her too. She didn't know if he was willing to wipe out this team. He had said that it was potentially dangerous, and of course they still needed them at the moment, but who knew how much reason mattered to him at the moment? She started another attempt at a gentle intervention.  
"Rain isn't ready yet…we should w-"  
Instead of being interrupted verbally, it was a shell hitting the ground right in front of her that made her shut up at once. She gave the E25 a startled look.  
"I'm not talking about them!" he snapped and then suddenly turned his back to her and the camp.  
"I'll be back" he said and raced off. Sierra glanced at the base anxiously and hoped that no one had seen him, because that was much faster than a "Hetzer" should have been able to go.

And then she realized that she was on her own again. Awkwardly, she remained in the very spot she was standing for a moment longer. How long would he be gone?


End file.
